Death physical,

Decomposition sly, monstrous,

The terrible fermentation of what was a being.

Of what was once in space,

The mysterious meetings of elements,

The fusion, the unique, a man.

For all men

Here and far away living in the provinces of the world

You had such a pure horror of that death, beloved!

Earth, earth, germination of life!

Do not believe that my senses are worn out, alas!

In the under-woods,

Amidst the rottenness of chestnut leaves,

Beneath my feet

Myriads of bluebells of the spring that comes,

I have seen you,

Crevices bursting in your green sheaths.

I breathe in the exhalations of the morning.

Their tonic freshness,

And the savour of vegetal foods,

I hold their precious and full taste in my palate.

I have caressed the cranny trunks of the oaks,

I have put my hands into thee,

Earth, I have squeezed and divided thee in my hands,

Earth wherein simmers without end a black and tender murmur,

Murmur of life wanting to well up,

Murmur of that fermentation of things dead.

Horror, Horror, O body of my child in the earth ...